Duntroon: Where Australia's Finest Army Officers Are Trained | Canberra Guided Tours

[@danieltreloar5246]

Fun fact for you i was baptised at the chapel at Duntroon

[@canberraguidedtours]

That's a wonderful and personal connection to Duntroon! Being baptized at the chapel there must have made the experience even more special for you. It's incredible how places like Duntroon hold meaningful memories for people. Thank you for sharing this fun fact with us. I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I hope it brought back some cherished memories for you. :)

[@roberthunter6927]

There have certainly been some outstanding graduates of Duntroon, but also the place has been plagued with snobbery, bastardisation, and so on. Many fine officers have got their commissions elsewhere. A shining example was General Sir John Monash [commissioned into the Victorian rifles]. A part-time volunteer and qualified engineer, he rose to become the commanding general of the Australian corps in late World War One, and his Le Hamel offensive in 1918 predated the German blitzkrieg by two decades. he was probably the best officer ever produced by the Australian army, the the "snob system" robbed him of the post he truly deserved: Chief of Staff for the Australian army, or better yet, defense force chief. Others have earned it for far fewer achievements. "Amateurs" like Brigadier Potts, who conducted a brilliant defense against overwhelming odds on the Kokoda track, in WW2 operating against the Japanese, was treated appallingly by Prime Minister, arch fascist US General McArthur, and the whoring drunk Thomas Blamey, so there's that. Fast-forward to Vietnam, where Brigadier Jackson, and Lt Colonel Townsend [both Duntroon graduates], got DSO's for simply showing up and generally doing nothing constructive, denied a DSO to Lt Colonel, [then Major] Harry Smith, who was the senior officer actually on the scene, and risking his life at the battle of Long Tan. Smith and his brave company got royally screwed on that one. Jack Kirby, CSM of Delta company, 6th battalion, should have gotten a VC. Major Smith graduated from Portsea, and Lt Gordon Sharp, who died at Long Tan, was also an outstanding officer, and he was trained at OTU Scheyville, and a conscript. And so it goes on. Some of the murderers of Timor and Ache, were trained by the Australian army to become senior Indonesian officers. I could go on. Short version: Put far less emphasis on the "old school tie" and more on what officers actually achieve during their careers is the mark of a good officer. Australian still treats its military personnel appallingly badly, and as one long tan veteran was rumored to have said: "We don't have many soldiers, let's not waste the one's we've got". Nuff said.

[@Yahweh312]

"The Jews welcome this revolution in the Christian world, and the Jews should show an example. It is not an accident that Judaism gave birth to Marxism, and it is not an accident that the Jews readily took up Marxism: all this was in perfect accord with the progress of Judaism and the Jews." - (A Program for the Jews and Humanity, by Rabbi Harry Waton, p. 148).

[@JGuyula-kh6wt]

Thank you for knowing 👍💯

[@KeithDevine-k9q]

I served in the army in the 1960s serves OS,but foud that the officers who came through Portsea were better than Duntroon and not up themselves.

[@Maxindifference]

Was there 88/89 Didn’t graduate. Won the silver boomerang as a fourthy though and played in the premiership rugby first XV. Still great mates with a lot of old boys but far too many wankers ended up as officers.